The Martial Unity

The profound weight of the tone of her voice hung in the air, making the atmosphere feel heavy. Not a single one of them could take their eyes off the vial that stored a drop of the most powerful poison in human civilization, perhaps even in the galaxy. Even just beholding a projection of the poison made them feel like they were staring death in the face. As if they had come face to face with the very incarnation of death itself.

“…So that’s what they use to destroy infected worlds,” Runark murmured with an awed tone of voice. “Uncle Rui truly is amazing.”

Even Ria couldn’t deny his words. Whatever qualms she might have had with her father, she couldn’t deny that he was the greatest Martial Artist in history.

“Big brother’s poison is the only poison we have against infected worlds,” Arastia remarked, swiping the projection away. “Otherwise, we would be in tremendous amounts of trouble.”

Ria frowned. “Can’t we just blow such planets up with our superweapons or our strongest pathwalkers?”

Arastia shook her head. “The reality is that infected worlds can absorb energy extremely well. A kinetic impact, heat, or even gravitational attacks can’t destroy them very easily. That’s because the deep biosphere bacteria have a deep amount of control over the mantle and the crust, allowing them to turn impacts into, essentially, elastic collisions. We can destroy it with sustained attacks, but it would call for help as the virus in Gaia did many years ago when the Emperor destroyed it.”

Everybody had heard of the nebular invasion into Gaian Civilization. “And this poison can prevent the call for help?” Ria turned back towards the projection of the Tide of Samsara.

“It has succeeded with every infected world we have run into,” Arastia confirmed knowingly. “The Transcendent poison prevents the deep-biosphere bacteria from calling for help.”

“…Deep biosphere bacteria?” Runark raised an eyebrow as his green irises lit up with a hint of curiosity. “Isn’t that why they’re called infected worlds? Because they have a bacterial infection?”

“Not a bacterial infection, no, but a viral one,” Arastia replied patiently. “An alien virus that travels across the cosmos, infecting worlds and spreading with explosions to infect more worlds.”

“What for?” Runark asked curiously. “Why would something like that do that?”

“A virus doesn’t need intentionality. They spread simply because they have evolved to spread.” Ria added knowingly, turning towards Arastia with a curious expression. “Though I can’t imagine that such a thing evolved naturally. For such a thing to evolve naturally, exploding planets and their debris would need to land on other planets at rates astronomically greater than what you would expect for such a lifeform to evolve in exactly the same manner.”

Arastia smiled at her niece with appreciation. “You were always bright, Ria.”

“Am I right?” She grew more intrigued. “Is the virus naturally evolved?”

“Enough,” Arastia raised a hand. “You are asking about matters that are beyond you.”

“I still technically am heir to the most powerful throne in the stars,” Ria scoffed. “A throne you have made every effort to avoid,” Arastia pointed out, unperturbed. “Unless you’re willing to go back home and wield your authority as Princess to get access to the information you’re curious for, I’m not interested in these empty words.”

Ria’s expression softened with a resigned expression. She obviously had no intention of reversing her decisions for mere curiosity. Ultimately, this had nothing to do with her at all.

“Coming back to the main point, which was all to say that we are extremely well-prepared for the likelihood that this is indeed an infected world,” Arastia remarked knowingly. “We have a powerful fleet carrier and the needed weapon to take down an infected world without suffering any adverse effects.”

She smiled at the two of them. “Once we kill all life in the infected world with the Tide of Samsara super weapon, we can then extract the best of the esoteric resources.”

The two of them definitely were excited to learn about that. They had not only managed to find exactly what they needed to get to Amadeus III, but they had also managed to hitch a ride on an operation that was clearly extremely well-prepared.

“I feel a little under-qualified to be a part of this team,” Runark scratched his head with a hint of resignation in his tone of voice. “I mean, we’re only Martial Masters.”

Ria had to agree, even if she did think that they were quite special for their ages. “That doesn’t matter all that much; we still have some Martial Masters on this operation,” Arastia replied reassuringly. “We need all hands on deck. The reality is that even though the number of pathwalkers per capita has shot up, we’re always short of pathwalkers.”

Such was the nature of a precious resource like pathwalkers. Even if supply increased, there was always more demand. Still, the fact that their statuses had been reduced showed that the balance had certainly shifted. “Still, it is true that you need to be of bare minimum combat prowess, even as Martial Masters,” Arastia remarked as she got up, smiling at them challengingly. “Let’s see how strong the two of you have gotten in the past few years.”

Runark did a double-take. “You mean, right now?”

“Of course,” Arastia replied nonchalantly as she glanced at her watch. “I have a meeting to be in in fifteen minutes, so let’s get this over with quickly.”

She smiled at them smugly. “Not that I think the two of you will be able to last even a minute.”

The two of them knitted their eyebrows at her straightforward challenge to them. “Bring it on,” Ria confidently retorted. It wasn’t long before the three of them found themselves in a training room in a pure white training room in the branch office of the Blood Humanist Society. One that was armed with powerful energy absorbers to ensure that the training room remained intact even in the presence of high-grade pathwalkers.

Ria and Runark stood together on one side, facing Arastia several meters away from them. Arastia stretched in her business attire, not even bothering to change into a combat suit, smiling at the two of them with a hint of enthusiasm in her eyes.

“Let’s get started.”